Learned Imams of the Imdadul Masjid, family and friends of
the late Judge Mohamed Shahabuddeen, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters
all.Assalam Alaikum.

Sieyf, thank you for that fine introduction and thank you for
affording me the honour to deliver this keynote address to celebrate the life
of your late father, Dr. Mohamed Shahabuddeen, who died peacefully on February
17.

Mohamed Shahabuddeen was a most extraordinary man.He is arguably the most highly qualified
academic legal mind that Guyana has produced. But that is getting ahead of
myself.Let me start from the beginning.

‘Shahab’, as we all called him, was born on October 7, 1931
in the village of Vreed-en-Hoop on the west bank of the Demerara River. He was
the fourth of the five sons of Abdul Hameed and his wife Jameela. Abdul was a
goldsmith but he also raised cattle. Jameela was a home-maker. Unfortunately
Jameela died when Shahab was only three years old and his father, who never
remarried, raised his five sons more or less as a single parent.

Shahab attended St. Swithin’s Anglican Primary School in
Vreed-en-Hoop from 1938 for about four years.The family then moved to the village of Huis ‘T’ Dieren on the Essequebo
coast. There his father got help when Shahab went to live with his cousin’s
mother “Mai” who lived a few houses down the road from his father.He attended the Church of Scotland Primary
School, housed in an old Dutch brick building, converted from a barn.

Of course Guyanese will recognise the names Vreed-en-Hoop and
Huis ‘T’ Dieren are of Dutch origin.Vreed-en-Hoop
means ‘Peace and Hope’. Huis ‘T’ Dieren means House of Animals. And we will
remember our history - that it was the Dutch who first settled Guyana –
Essequebo in 1616; Berbice in 1627; and Demerara in 1752 as colonies. The
British assumed control in 1796 and the Dutch formally ceded the area in 1814.
In 1831 the three separate colonies became the British colony of British
Guiana.

Shahab was successful at the School Leaving Examination in 1944
and the Pupil Teacher’s Appointment Examination in 1945.He attended Country High School which started
in the village of Riverstown. He followed the school when it moved to Adventure
and finally to Suddie, all on the Essequebo coast. He was successful at the Cambridge Junior
School Certificate Examination in December 1947 and at the Cambridge Senior
School Certificate Examination in December 1948 with exemption from
matriculation.In those days there was
no University in Guyana – not even in the West Indies. And depending on the
High School one attended, students took examinations set and marked by British
Universities – Cambridge, Oxford & Cambridge Joint Board or London. And the minimum requirement for admission to a
British University was matriculation or exemption therefrom which required
credits in at least five subjects at the senior examination, three of which
were compulsory – English Language & Composition; Elementary Mathematics
and a foreign language and the foreign languages offered were invariably Latin
and French – not Spanish, with Spanish speaking Venezuela as our neighbour to
the west; not Portuguese with Portuguese speaking Brazil as our neighbour to
the south and not Dutch with Dutch speaking Suriname as our eastern neighbour.
Our northern border is of course the Atlantic Ocean.

It was recognised that Shahab was brilliant. Meaningful
employment was not available in the village. The war was over and the world was
settling back to peace. What to do about Shahab? It was decided that he must
‘do law’.His father provided the funds
for his passage to England in July 1949 and his admission fee to the Middle
Temple, one of the four Inns of Court where Barristers are trained and where,
it is safe to say, that the majority of West Indian Barristers received their
training.

It is important to keep in mind the time lines of his
academic career in order to appreciate the magnitude of his achievements.
Shahab entered the Middle Temple on January 27, 1950.Normally prospective Barristers qualify in
three years.He passed his Bar Finals in
May, 1952 - just short of two and a half years.He was only twenty years old.In
addition he had been working full-time during his tenure at the Middle Temple
and this was a barrier to his Call to the Bar. However an English Queen’s Counsel
came to his aid – he got an exemption and was called to the Bar of the Middle
Temple on February 9, 1954.

While waiting on his call to the Bar, he was not idle. He was
reading for the LL.B. examination of the University of London as an external
student.That means you read the same
law books as those fortunate enough to attend the University, write the same
examinations as they do but you do not have the benefit of the Law Professors
to guide you.The LL.B. is usually a
three year course of study – first there is the intermediate LL.B. Examination,
usually held in September, the first part of the Finals in June and the second
part of the Finals the following June. Shahab completed his LL.B. Finals in
1953.

Shahab left England for home in July 1954 and was admitted to
the Bar of then British Guiana on August 9, 1954. His petition to the High
Court was presented by B.O. Adams, a renowned Senior Counsel. Shahab was married on August 14, 1955 to
the former Sairah Mazaharally, and they had three children, two boys, Faid and
Sieyf, both of whom followed their father into law and qualified as
Attorneys-at-Law, and a girl, Shalisa, who earned a degree in history from the
University of Guyana. They all live in Canada with their families.
Unfortunately their mother Sairah died in August 2012.

He
practised on the Essequebo coast appearing principally in the

Magistrate’s Court in Suddie, Anna Regina, Charity and
Aurora.

While in practice, and with a young family, he gained
the degree of

Master of Laws in 1958 from the University of London
and the

following year the degree of Bachelor of Science
(Economics) also from

the University of London, both as an external student.
In May 1959 he

was appointed to the Magistrate’s Court in Suddie. His
service as a

Magistrate was quite short – from May 1959 to August
1959.

It is with some degree of delight to state that a member of
my family played a part in his future success. My uncle John Carter had also
graduated as a Barrister at Law from the Middle Temple in 1942 and had returned
to Guyana after the War in 1945. He had a wide practice throughout the three
counties of Demerara, Berbice and Essequebo. He appeared before Shahab on a
number of occasions and was very impressed by his knowledge and scholarship.

John Carter was a friend of Shridath Ramphal – later Sir
Shridath Ramphal – known to all Guyanese as ‘Sonny’ Ramphal. In his tribute to
Shahab published in the Guyana Press on February 18, 2018, Sir Shridath stated inter alia:

I was Guyana’s Solicitor
General when a senior lawyer, my friend John
Carter, called and asked me if I knew the magistrate at Suddie; and if I didn’t why was such talent confined to a country

District- and as a
magistrate? It was the first time I had heard his

name. He came to me the
following week, and in a sense, he never

left.

This is how Sonny Ramphal describes him in his book “Glimpses
of a Global Life” published in 2014:

Made perfect thus in little space,God called thee to his long embrace,Before the mists of earth could throw,a shadow on thy robe snow.Guide from thy throne.....

Fr. Clement Barraud.

Significant Dates in the History of St.Stanislaus College

* May 1st,1866- Catholic Grammar School started* November 3rd 1866- School moved to Main Street premises* 1868or 69- School moved to Waterloo Street* 1871- School returned to Cathedral Presbytery* 1871- Boarders introduced* 1878- School temporarily closed* 1880- School re-opened* 1897- School moved to site of St. Mary's School, Brickdam* 1907- School moved to present Brickdam site* 1907- Name changed from'Catholic Grammar School' to " Saint Stanislaus College"* 1928- Weld Wing opened* 1942- College Association formed* 1952- Scannell Wing opened* 1966- College celebrates 100th Anniversary* 1972- Hopkinson Wing opened* 1974- Workshop built* 1975- College Farm opened* 1975- Collge becomes co-educational* 1976- College becomes a Govenment School* 1980- College ceases to be run by the Jesuits* 1991- College celebrates 125th anniversary* October 2004 - Board of Govern0rs appointed